New In Chess Podcast

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen.

Peter is a five-time Danish chess champion, but is primarily known for his highly successful coaching career. From 2007 till 2023, he was continuously coaching the reigning World Champion, working first for Vishy Anand and later for Magnus Carlsen. In this capacity, he was a winning coach in a world championship match a record eight times.

As always, this year’s world title match, which takes place in Singapore between November 25th and December 13th, is eagerly awaited. At the same time, the reigning champion’s lacklustre recent results keep confusing the experts. Ding Liren has dropped to 22nd place in the world rankings and only seems a shadow of the great Ding that not that long ago was the second player in the world behind Magnus Carlsen. In stark contrast, Gukesh has been going from strength to strength. After winning the Candidates tournament in Toronto earlier this year, he led India to gold at the Olympiad in Budapest with a stellar performance on first board.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Peter Heine Nielsen assesses the situation at the start of the match, analyzing Gukesh’s strengths and possible weaknesses and looking for glimpses of hope for Ding Liren.

0:00 – Intro

2:05 – What is Peter expecting from this year’s world championship match?

3:33 – Ding’s physical and mental state

8:40 – Ding’s deterioration over the past year, winning 3 out of 49 classical games

13:47 – Comparing Gukesh’s rise to the rises of Kasparov and Carlsen

16:50 – Ding’s strong competitive mindset, despite his mental health issues

21:02 – AD BREAK

21:35 – How should Ding’s team aid him in his preparation for Singapore?

25:59 – Ding’s friendship with Richard Rapport

31:53 – What will be the role of computer preparation in this match?

37:00 – Could Gukesh’s confidence be his downfall?

40:30 – Could Ding be exaggerating his symptoms to make Gukesh underestimate him?

43:00 – AD BREAK

44:00 – Kasparov’s assertion that this is “not a world championship match at all”

50:22 – Peter’s love of freestyle chess, also known as Chess960 and Fischerandom

56:48 – Developments in chess in China and India

1:06:20 – So, what is Peter’s prediction for the match?

1:09:17 - Outro 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. This week features the second part of Genna’s story about Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981).

Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famous Fischer-Spassky of 1972 and had to navigate many other chess “situations” of the time, such as the defection of Viktor Korchnoi from the USSR and attempts by Soviet officials to remove him from power.

Genna, a fellow native of The Netherlands, met Max Euwe around the time of the 1972 World Championship match, and the two remained in touch until Euwe’s death in 1981. Genna’s story paints a picture of Max Euwe as a player, friend and historical chess figure all at once. Three weeks ago, Part 1 of Euwe’s story focused on his later career as a chess administrator, including the 1972 World Championship match. This week, Genna delves into Max Euwe, the chess player. 

A hardcopy of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with French grandmaster Joel Lautier.

Joel has had a rich chess career: he became the youngest Junior World Champion in history in 1988, holds a lifetime positive score against Garry Kasparov and is, along with Vasily Ivanchuk, the only grandmaster of his generation to have defeated all world champions of his time: Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Khalifman, Anand, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov and Topalov. He was also one of Kramnik’s seconds when the Russion sensationally defeated Kasparov for the world title in 2000. Despite his successful chess career, Joel came to the conclusion that he was hungry for new challenges and opted for a career change, going into investment banking.

In a lively conversation with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Lautier speaks about his chess career as well as his career as an investment banker, including the shocking moment in 2022 when the US State Department unjustly put him on the sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a dramatic and painful error that was corrected about a year later.

0:00 – Intro

2:10 – Welcome Joel!

3:05 – Becoming the youngest Junior World Champion in history in 1988

4:24 – Meeting his great influence, Bobby Fischer, in 1992

8:52 – Realising upon meeting Fischer that he did not want to remain in chess forever

10:42 – Dropping out of school at 16 to pursue chess, Joel’s father’s influence

13:05 – Joel’s experience being coached by Lev Polugaevsky

16:25 – Joel’s positive score against Kasparov

20:41 – Joel’s spectacular three-queen game against Kasparov

23:49 – The legendary Linnares 1994 tournament

26:23 – AD BREAK

27:02 – Joel’s victory over Kasparov in Amsterdam 1995

33:16 – Joel’s experience as a second for Kramnik in 2000

40:18 – The evening of Kramnik’s victory

42:17 – Joel’s visit to Fischer with Spasski in 1992

47:01 – The start of Joel’s business career and move to Russia

52:48 – AD BREAK

53:47 – Continued business career and eventual move to Barcelona

59:53 – Being incorrectly put on (and later taken off) an American sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

1:06:49 – AD BREAK

1:07:42 – Will Joel be compensated by the American government for their mistake?

1:08:09 – Joel’s talented 13-year old daughter Naomi, whose paintings are displayed at various exhibitions in Europe

1:14:26 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely. Loek was the captain of the winning team, the Triveni Continental Kings, at the recent Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London.

Loek van Wely can look back on a rich career as a player. He won the Dutch championship 8 times and had his career peak in 2001, when he made it to the world top 10 with a rating of 2714. Besides his achievements on the chess board, Loek is a renowned coach, who has worked with stars like Gata Kamsky, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. In more recent years he’s been coaching the Italian national team and Dutch grandmaster Max Warmerdam.

If you are new to the Global Chess League, Loek will fill you in as he speaks about the strategies, the players that made the difference and the pros and cons of the remarkable time control (20 minutes per player per game, no increment) that almost inevitably led to wild time scrambles. In a lively conversation with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Loek talks about the innovative format of the Global Chess League and the impact it may have on the chess world. In passing he reveals his ambitions as a coach and gives his take on Vladimir Kramnik’s anti-cheating crusade that continues to fuel heated and widespread discussions online.

0:00 – Intro

2:59 – Loek explains how the Global Chess League works

6:00 – Is there a limit to every team’s financial means?

7:18 – Magnus and Ding’s participation

8:58 – Wei Yi’s participation in Loek’s team and the “point system”

13:43 – How does Loek deal with situations where teammates have strained

relationships, such as between Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina?

17:29 – AD BREAK

18:27 – The format and length of the event

20:27 – The controversial 20+0 time control and Alireza Firouzja’s performance

24:10 – Does the Global Chess League change the chess world?

26:38 – Are the organisers happy with the way the Global Chess League has taken off?

28:27 – What considerations go into Loek’s selection of his players?

30:04 – The bidding process on players like Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura

33:25 – AD BREAK

34:04 – Magnus’s participation?

36:35 – Does the Global Chess League, operated by India, foreshadow Indian dominance on the chess organisation circuit?

40:46 – What does Loek bring to the table as a coach?

43:26 – Does Loek’s own playing strength and activity as a player help him as a coach?

45:35 – What were the crucial moments that contributed to Loek’s team’s victory this year?

47:24 – What did Loek do to make Wei Yi feel comfortable as part of the team?

49:36 – AD BREAK

50:25 – How does Loek see his future in coaching and beyond?

53:56 – Is it always a coach’s dream to work with young talent?

56:30 – Vladimir Kramnik’s controversial cheating allegations

1:05:40 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Subject of this week’s episode is Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981).

Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famous Fischer-Spassky of 1972 and had to navigate many other chess “situations” of the time, such as the defection of Viktor Korchnoi from the USSR and attempts by Soviet officials to remove him from power.

Genna, a fellow native of The Netherlands, met Max Euwe around the time of the 1972 World Championship match, and the two remained in touch until Euwe’s death in 1981. Over four decades later, Genna’s story paints a picture of Max Euwe as both a friend and a historical chess figure.

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with grandmaster Alex Colovic. Alex is a grandmaster from North Macedonia, who lives in Skopje, and is active in the chess world in many ways. He’s not only a player, but also a trainer, a blogger, a YouTuber, a former president of the Association of Chess Professionals, and a FIDE Fair Play Officer.

We invited Alex this week to talk about his new book "Capablanca's Endgame Technique: The Astonishing Chess Logic of the Third World Champion". In his new book, he pays tribute to one of his chess heroes, the Cuban genius who became the third World Champion and is admired by many as one of the greatest natural talents our game has ever seen. Capablanca was famous for his impeccable endgame technique and Alex is convinced that studying his endgames is beneficial for players of all levels. In his book, Alex looks at 15 endgames of Capablanca in great depth. Not with ultradeep variations, but with a lot of verbal explanations, general observations and with lots of exercises in between for the reader. 

In our conversation, Alex explains the underlying ideas and his fascination with the Cuban and much more. An eager talker with a broad knowledge of chess and its history, Alex also speaks about sleeping problems for chess players and his work as a FIDE Fair Play Officer. In this capacity he will be at the World Championship match in Singapore in November between Ding Liren and Gukesh, and he provides great insights in the precautions that will be taken there.

Lots of insights, great suggestions to improve and wonderful stories. Don’t miss this talk with Alex Colovic!

The New In Chess podcast is published every Friday and can be listened to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and the New In Chess website.

Alex's book on Capablanca is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/capablanca-s-endgame-technique 

0:00 – Intro

2:32 – What inspired Alex to write about Capablanca?

5:42 – Does Alex notice Capablanca’s influence in his own games?

8:08 – Why Alex thinks it’s valuable to study the old masters

9:51 – What lessons can modern players learn from Capablanca’s play?

18:22 – Does Capablanca deserve to be counted among the greatest of all time?

21:01 – Capablanca’s personality and superstar status

27:38 – Alex’s biggest revelations when studying Capablanca’s legendary endgame play

32:22 – Should done always study with a board and pieces or is this an outdated concept?

37:20 – What other sources on Capablanca does Alex recommend?

41:19 – AD BREAK

42:17 – Emmanuel Lasker’s appraisal of Capablanca’s play

45:32 – Capablanca’s incredibly deep understanding of the game and ranking among the all-time greats

49:20 – AD BREAK

50:53 – Alex’s career in content creation, the importance of sleep

58:44 – Alex’s upcoming projects and work as a FIDE Fair Play Officer

1:04:18 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko.

As the title of his autobiography, Chess Is My Life, hints at, Korchnoi’s drive, passion and obsession for the game of chess were as strong as they had always been. He simply lived for chess: his energetic spirit never aged, he was often one of the last to leave the playing hall, and during his analysis sessions he worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of things, after one goal and one goal only: the truth.

"The Essential Sosonko" is available in its entirety on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with American grandmaster Max Dlugy. Max Dlugy has had a rich and varied chess career: he was Junior World Champion, became president of the United States Chess Federation at the young age of 24, worked for IBM on the groundbreaking Deep Blue chess computer project, and today runs his own successful chess school, the Chess Max Academy in New York. Two years ago he got into the news for a different reason, when he was dragged into the cheating story involving Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen, when the world’s number one insinuated his involvement as Niemann’s ‘mentor’. The allegation had serious consequences, when in addition to being publicly named a cheater, his chess.com account was temporarily suspended by chess.com, a decision Dlugy considered ‘immoral and illegal’.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam in Budapest during the Chess Olympiad, Max Dlugy talks about his Chess Max Academy, but the lion’s share of the conversation focuses on his role in Hans Niemann’s career and his view of the cheating story, a story that brought (and continues to bring) near-unprecedented levels of mainstream attention to the chess scene.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

0:00 – Intro

3:38 – Max’s background and the beginning of the Chess Max Academy

19:31 – Max’s first meeting with Hans Niemann

25:21 – Max’s past coaching of Hans

29:18 – AD BREAK

34:51 – The infamous Magnus vs Hans game

36:36 – The “set-up” to implicate Max in the drama involving lawyer Richard Conn

42:55 – Max’s conflict with chess.com, online cheating allegations

46:27 – The Borislav Ivanov story

48:24 – Chess.com leaking Max’s communications “for the sake of public interest”

49:04 – AD BREAK

50:13 – How does the “cheating situation” affect Max these days?

51:30 – Why chess.com is doing a bad job at detecting cheaters

53:39 – Hikaru Nakamura calling out cheaters without good evidence

55:07 – The problem with online accuracy scores and chess.com’s immoral way of obtaining cheating “confessions”

58:15 – Max considering legal action against chess.com

59:51 – Max’s solution to the cheating problem

1:03:04 – How does Max assess the damage done to Hans Niemann as a result of this scandal?

1:06:39 – Vladimir Kramnik’s strange antics and unlikely “partnership” with Hans

1:09:00 – Does Max think Magnus regrets making the cheating allegations?

1:10:16 – Max’s future plans for the Chess Max Academy

1:12:30 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko.

Continuing where we left off in Episode #33, Sosonko invites us to sit beside him as Olga Clark continues her talk about Capablanca and the time that they spent together both in Europe and in America, punctuated by the actuality of being in the restaurant that she and Capa favoured and used to frequent.

Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, in “‘I knew Capablanca…’” Sosonko shows us the human sides of Capablanca, effectively portraying the life of a man in whose life, as it appears, chess just happens to have found its place.

"The Essential Sosonko" is available in its entirety on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Swedish grandmaster Tiger Hillarp Persson. Tiger is a three-time Swedish champion and has been described as one of the most creative and original players of our game. His creativity is on display in his latest book, “Tiger’s Chaos Theory”, in which, perhaps unsurprisingly, the topic of creativity in chess plays an important role.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Tiger talks about creativity, the development of his chess philosophy throughout the years, and how this is reflected in his latest work.

"Tiger's Chaos Theory" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website:

https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=41&q=tigers+chaos+theorhy&cvid=c748d3ce43f94efcaa1629a62b82fa03&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhAMgYIBRAAGEAyBggGEAAYQDIGCAcQABhAMgYICBAAGEAyCAgJEOkHGPxV0gEIMzQ3MmowajGoAgCwAgA&FORM=ANNAB1&PC=U531 

0:00 – Intro

1:33 – How did Tiger feel when finally holding the book he’d spent so much time working on?

3:04 - Tiger clarifies at what age he started playing chess and recalls playing with his father

5:02 – Why did his parents pick the name Tiger?

9:11 – How did Tiger’s “Tiger’s Chaos Theory” come about?

11:18 – Tiger’s database of his own games that impacted the way he played in the future

14:56 – Why Tiger’s book does not propose a “grand theory” of chess

17:21 – The chapter on queen sacrifices

20:30 - Why a good chess player should strive for objectivity

23:10 – Tiger’s use of metaphors and stories in his writing

26:31 – Why Tiger talks to his pieces, and his students should too

29:43 – Tiger’s scepticism towards material

30:41 – Tiger clarifies certain quotes from the book

31:12 – AD BREAK

33:37 – How does this book relate to Tiger’s other passions, like go and music?

38:40 – Tiger’s humble beginnings and relative disregard for money

42:01 – Tiger’s favourite classical music

46:21 – AD BREAK

47:21 – Why Tiger considers chess more of a science than an art, the role of the engine

58:01 – Outro